NILPHAMARI, Sept 30, 2020 (BSS) – Over 1.71 lakh students of 1,014 primary level educational institutions of five upazilas in the district received 513.52 tonnes of nutritious biscuits in the third phase during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Officials said the door-to-door distribution of the biscuits with 40 packets among each of the students for August and September began from September 14 and ended today in the third phase.
Earlier, 513.52 tonnes of nutritious biscuits with 40 packets among each of the students were distributed in July in the second phase after distributing 641.91 tonnes of biscuits among them with 50 packets each in the first phase in May last in the district.
Directorate of Primary Education under School Feeding Programme (SFP) of Ministry of Primary and Mass Education distributed the biscuits in poverty-prone areas with assistance of the district, police and upazila administrations through RDRS Bangladesh.
Upazila Nirbahi Officers, Upazila Education Officers, Headmasters, Assistant Teachers and Members of School Managing Committees and School Feeding Officers of RDRS Bangladesh reached the biscuits to the students at their doorsteps.
The biscuits were distributed among the students of 996 government primary schools, Shishu Kallyan Trust-run five schools and 13 ebtedayee madrasah in Sadar, Kishoreganj, Jaldhaka, Domar and Dimla upazilas of the district.
The biscuits were distributed among the beneficiary students from door-to-door strictly maintaining physical distancing to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 infection.
Talking to BSS today, Project Coordinator Anondo Kumar Poul of the SFP of RDRS Bangladesh said the biscuits were distributed door-to-door to meet nourishments of the students for smooth studies amid COVID-19 outbreak since March 17 last.
Since 2012, each student of the 1,014 primary level educational institutes are getting one packet of high energetic biscuits containing 75 gram each daily at the first period of school time.
“The SFP was launched to reduce school drop-outs and improve learning capacity of students by removing micronutrient deficiency for ensuring universal primary education by ensuring access to basic education for all children from poor households,” Poul added.
In the third phase, Jaldhaka Upazila Education Officer Nur Mohammad launched the door-to-door biscuit distribution on September 14 last while Dimla Upazila Education Officer Swapan Kumar Das finished the distribution process today.
“The SFP was launched to reduce school drop-outs and improve learning capacity of students by removing micronutrient deficiency for ensuring universal primary education by ensuring access to basic education for all children from poor households,” Poul said.